Heroes On Your Side, Heroes For All Time
by NeoVenus22
Summary: PRSPD. Various short, unrelated oneshot ficlets for SPD. Formerly known as 'Shorts'.
1. PRSPD: Argue

NEW: Anyone paying attention might notice that this "story" was previously known as "Shorts" (and before that, "One At A Time"), and housed ficlets from various seasons of Power Rangers. For clarity's sake, I decided to break up all these ficlets and house different archives by season. "Heroes On Your Side, Heroes For All Time" is the archive for my SPD ficlets.

Remember, these aren't chronological, aren't related to one another, and might not take place within the context of the season.

Questions, comments, concerns, and even requests can be sent to me NeoVenus22 at .

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Disclaimer: nothing mentioned belongs to me, unless it's something you don't recognize (JJC), in which case it does. This one's a bit different from my usual format; I was feeling experimental. Minor language.

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**Argue**

The first time you and Jack ever fought, once the anger had worn off, you'd cloned yourself for company.

You were just kids then, just stupid children, and you were hanging out with your twin you, reading a cheesy, girly magazine that you'd picked out of someone's recycling bin (S. Cole, read the name on the mailing label), and the two of you (one of you) had spent two hours looking over bios of teen stars until you'd memorized Jayden Joel Cadence's favorite color (blue), food (strawberry Pop-Tarts), and song (2000s pop). Finally Jack had come over, and he'd apologized for whatever it was that he'd done. You don't remember now. It was something stupid, you'd both known it, and you'd both said things you didn't mean.

The thing was, you couldn't stay not-friends for long. Sure, in theory, you were easier to find if you were together, but you worked so well as a team that you were impossible to catch. Your friendship was the key to your survival.

Now it's not a team of two, it's a team of five. And loyalties are being spread all about. You've both said things that you shouldn't have. Things that you regret. He accuses you of trying to alienate yourself from the team, because you're nasty to Bridge when all he means is to be friendly, and you insult Syd at every turn. At that, you lose it, telling him that you were the one who wanted to join the team in the first place, not him, and the only reason he cares is because he spends all of his time flirting with Syd and not actually leading. And he can't talk about teamwork when he and Sky snipe at each other every chance they get. Maybe they all would have been better off if Sky had been chosen to be the Red Ranger, you snap, and something changes in the air between the two of you right then.

You wish you could tell him you didn't mean it, because you didn't. Because you've been following Jack's lead for years now, and without regret. You don't hate Sky, and you trust him, but he's as close-minded and as stubborn as you are, and he takes things far too seriously. You want to tell Jack all of this, but it wouldn't mean anything now. You can't take back even a second of distrust, because it will forever linger between the both of you. You will laugh and joke and play around again like you always do, but in the back of your mind, you will always hear him saying that maybe Cruger made a mistake choosing you at all.

Coming from Sky, it would mean nothing. Sky says that to everyone at some point or another, and it's not like he knows you. But Jack knows you better than anyone, and knows that doubt plagues you, as you've come up with the lowest scores during the field exercises over the past two weeks.

After that first fight, he'd come and sat down next to you, and without a word, the second Z waved at you and disappeared back into the nothingness she'd come from. Jack had took one look at your lame reading material, and laughed, and then the two of you had built a fire, thrown it in, and stayed warm through the night. His arm was around you, and your head was on his shoulder.

Now you sit there, and you can't have a silent apology. You've called each other names (self-absorbed jackass, self-righteous bitch, arrogant, snobby, hypocrite, weak, moron, annoying, hopeless, useless). You've said things. You know you wouldn't have said them if you didn't believe them a little bit. Now you sit. It's warm in the rumpus room, and you're alone together, and the hum of the machinery is almost like the hum of the city waking up in the mornings.

You were a team of two within a team of five. The other three had known each other for years, like you had known Jack, and they didn't trust you, like you didn't trust them. You can't remember when things shifted, but you wish more than anything that things were the way they were in the beginning.

"Jack, weren't we going to go train about now?" chirrups Syd from out of nowhere, and you try not to glare. A grin comes easily to Jack's face, a hurried, "Of course," and he's standing, moving, at the door, out the door. You're alone again, and you resent him for it, when you used to be the one that would tell him to try and fit in more, to give the team and the mission a chance.

It's been five years now, and Jayden Joel Cadence no longer has a career, but you're sure within the extensive depths of Syd's 'library' contains the intimate portrait of yet another pretty boy. Most likely with an accompanying shirtless photo. You close your eyes in a sigh, ready to summon up a playmate for the afternoon, when a familiar set of dreads (_You know, you could run faster if you didn't have all that weight on your head_, you'd taunted him once, while escaping the SPD for the second time in a month) pops itself back in the room (at the time, he'd only laughed, slightly out of breath, and shrugged in grinning Jack fashion). "Z, change of plans," he announces now. "We're going to play some quickdraw lightball. You know I need you on my team."

You jump to conclusions, as you are wont to do, assume it's pity. But it can't be, because he doesn't know how you feel. And you know he wouldn't ask out of a sense of guilt. You can see it in his eyes: the lack of apology, the lack of pity, the lack of anything. He wants to play lightball, and he wants you on his team, and he wants the two of you to kick Bridge's and Syd's butts.

You remember the day you first the first day you met them. You and Jack shared a tiny moment, having worked together for so long, and so tightly, that you could almost read each other's minds, could communicate whole volumes with a single glance. When SPD came knocking at your door —a new breed of cadets your age who could run a lot faster than the squads of old that panted and heaved after three blocks— you'd shared a look before launching into action. You're on his team, and you're going to kick their butts.

You get up and join him. You can still remember the words he threw at you, and you are desperate to prove him wrong. You're going to win—not for Jack, not for yourself, but for your friendship. To remind him of his place. And your place, together, as a team.


	2. PRSPD: Fairytale

Challenge: "I Never Thought My Life Would Turn Out Like This"

Disclaimer: Power Rangers SPD and its characters are property of Disney, which I am not affliated with.

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**Fairytale**

All of the stories Jack had ever heard began with "once upon a time". When he was younger, his mom loved to tell him stories about kings and queens and talking animals and fairy magic. As such, he began to narrate his life as a story that began with "once upon a time".

Once upon a time, he was a cute kid with a mother who loved him more than anything. One who tucked him in at night, and told him stories, and promised him he could have a puppy for his next birthday.

Then, as it did in all fairy tales, tragedy struck, and the young hero was forced to find his way in the world, with no mother, and no money, and no future, and no hope. But he was smart, and he had pluck, and so he just started a different story.

Once upon a time, he was a cute teenager who lived on the streets, using his charm to get him things, and what he couldn't weasel from someone, he could steal. It wasn't truly stealing if it was survival, he tried to tell himself, and he adapted his rules so that he wasn't just helping himself, but helping anyone else he could. Jack had always liked his mother's stories about Robin Hood. But his heroine was no Maid Marian; it was Z. When she entered the story, she'd taken him by surprise. She'd been crying, but five minutes after he'd sat next to her, the tears had dried up, and he'd never seen them again in the years of their companionship. She was no damsel in distress, he'd learned that quickly. Z was brash and unrelenting, but with a heart underneath. She was in actuality, he'd discovered, his fairy godmother. She had of course been in disguise, just like in the stories. Hiding her true identity until she was sure he was a worthy candidate for her magic. And she saved him, with a wave of her wand, giving him at last someone to tell his own stories to.

Together, they'd run from the SPD. The law was the villain of the piece. Jack and Z were both different, and they both knew that if captured for their thievery, they'd be persecuted for their powers. So they hid, and they lived on the streets among the aliens, where they were alike in their abnormalities. In Jack's stories, there had always been definite heroes and definite villains. Good and bad. Jack had never believed he was a bad guy. Every day, he saw the SPD cart off aliens and humans alike, for living on the streets. Throwing people in prison should not be the method for getting people off the streets, and for that, Jack knew that the SPD was the bad guy. It was as it should be: there was always a clear villain.

For every mountain, there is a corresponding valley. And for as good as his story with Z was, there was danger lurking in the wings. Things quickly went south, and they were captured. Still, Jack didn't regret helping. He wouldn't have let anyone fight those things unaided, and he knew it was the right thing to do, the heroic thing to do. More than anything, Jack had desired to be a hero, to be someone that his mother would have told stories about. But there was something else to it. He knew, deep down, that one of the reasons he'd gone back was because he wanted to see them again—the anomalies. They were SPD, but they were freaks like him. He didn't know what they were, how they fit into the narrative. He was eager to hear the end of the tale.

Once upon a time, Jack's mother told him great fairytales. Now he found himself in a building so big it was like a palace. There was a princess, a giant talking dog, and a mysterious ball of white fairy light saving them. He was even closer than ever at becoming a hero worthy of stories.

Syd was painting a picture again. There were swirls of bright neon green that he could see from across the room. On the opposite end of the couch as Jack, Sky was reading something that looks suspiciously like the master copy of the SPD handbook. Bridge and Z keep ducking in and out of his line of sight, learning how to tango. Bridge was surprisingly adept on his feet.

Jack leaned forward in his seat, surveying them. The painting princess, the silent knight, the court jester, the fairy godmother. "Hey, guys," he said thoughtfully, and there was a moment before they all were looking at him. He smiled at his new family. "You wanna hear a story?"


	3. PRSPD: Two By Two

Challengeless. Standard disclaimers apply. Spoilers for 'Endings'. Also apologies for suckiness.

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**Two By Two**

Sky settled back on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Being promoted to Red Ranger had meant that he'd had the option of moving into his own room, and while he liked Bridge, and had roomed with Bridge for years, sometimes enough was enough, and you had to take the opportunities you were given. Besides, they'd somehow convinced the Commander to let Boom move out of the basement and be Bridge's roommate, so the two tech geeks were up late into the night, building things and fixing things. Bridge didn't much notice Sky's absence.

Sky couldn't help noticing how paired off everyone was. The Commander was reunited with his wife. Dr. Manx mourned the relationship between herself and Cruger that never was, and when she stopped with that, Boom was there to support her as he'd always been. Age gap and species gap aside, Boom made her laugh, and Kat made him think. They were happy.

Jack, of course, had Ally. The few times Sky had had free time to visit, Jack was never without Ally at his side. They were as giggly as newlyweds, and Sky suspected it would only be a matter of time before they actually were. Jack showed no signs of ever wanting to return to SPD. As it stood, he didn't even visit his former team there; they had to come to him.

Z spent her time with Sam from the present. It was a very confusing and awkward situation, trying to make the time to connect now, when it was Sam from the future that she had ended up falling for, missing him more acutely in his absence. Sky could only hope that Z found solace elsewhere in the two decades before she'd be reunited with the Omega Ranger. Still, she seemed remarkably optimistic.

Bridge had Sophie. That was perhaps the most peculiar of all the relationships, even Z and Sam's, because at least Sam was human. Sophie, nice girl though she was, Sky could never let go of the fact that she was not a girl at all. But she laughed at all of Bridge's jokes, and never got lost during his long and nonsensical monologues. Bridge was the happiest Sky had ever seen him, and that said a lot.

And Sky sat there, having no one. He hadn't even realized that he wanted someone. But he felt the ache of loneliness horribly when he wandered through the halls of the Academy and saw all of his friends happy. It made him very, very tired. So he spent a lot of time in his room, just lying down and resorting to the antisocial Sky he'd been when this had all started.

"Sky?"

The door muffled the owner of the voice, but it was Saturday, and it was probably Bridge trying to recruit him for a game of lightball. He couldn't figure out yet if he wanted to play or not. "Come in."

The door opened and it was Syd standing there, looking at him with concern. "Are you sick or something, Sky? I feel like I never see you."

"I'm fine," he said. "Just a little tired."

"Being Red Ranger will do that to you." She fixed him with a small smile. "I'm proud of you, you know. I don't think I've said that yet. I know you worked hard for this, and you're doing a great job."

"Thanks." Syd was staring at him with a completely unreadable expression, one that made him ask, "What's up?"

She shook her head, blond hair bouncing, the quick smile returning. "Nothing. Can I sit down?"

"Go ahead." He noted how gracefully she dropped into his desk chair. It was a tiny thing, but it was all he could think about.

"Have you ever noticed how everyone's paired off?" she blurted. She ticked off the offenders on her fingers: "The Commander and Aysinia, Kat and Boom, Bridge and Sophie, Z and Sam, Jack and Ally... Everyone but us. Makes you feel kinda lonely."

Sky laughed despite himself. "I'm sure that of any of us, you're the person least likely to be alone for a long time."

Syd grinned and flipped her hair. "You're probably right."

Still, it was comforting to know that he wasn't the only one who felt that way. "Do you want to play lightball?" he blurted. "The way things are going, there'll probably be a doubles tournament before long."

"We'll both need partners," she agreed. "And you're the best player in the whole Academy. We can't lose."

"Not once I've taught you the fundamentals of winning."

"Teach me, great master," she joked.

"Lead the way, student." He followed her out of the room, and he realized that he wasn't as lonely as he'd thought.


	4. PRSPD: Oldest Trick in the Book

Challenge: PRSPD, Syd/Z. For Sarafu.

Disclaimer: No one mentioned belongs to me.

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**Oldest Trick in the Book**

Z loved scary movies. In the beginning, sneaking into theaters with Jack was just a way to hide from the authorities for a few hours, rest in the dark in comfy chairs, warm or cool as the situation required, and snack on food people forgot.

But after awhile they started sneaking in for themselves, for fun. Z sort of liked slasher movies, something that Jack made fun of her for. It wasn't realistic, after all, and there were things, real things, a lot scarier than guys in masks. But Z liked knowing she was smarter and more adapted for survival than any of the idiots in those movies.

"Why don't they ever think to lock a door behind them?" asked Z, nonplussed, watching the cute and busty heroine duck into the kitchen in an attempt to arm herself.

Syd snuggled a little deeper into Z's side, not answering. Z had not been entirely surprised to learn that Syd was still girly enough that she found horror movies actually scary. She was mostly just amused. Syd, who had stared almost certain death in the face before and had kicked it out of the way with her cute little pink boots, was now whimpering into Z's shoulder and watching the screen through her fingers.

"You're such a little girl," Z mocked fondly. Not that she minded or anything. Syd's girliness was cute sometimes, and downright beneficial other times. Z had learned this watching Jack. It was the oldest trick in the book, tried and true: hot girl plus scary movie equaled lots of clinging in the dark.

Z curled her fingers around Syd's opposite arm, enjoying the warmth of the other girl's back through the uniform. Syd, on the other hand, was not so easily placated. "That is a lot of blood," she said. "Seriously, ew."

"You picked it," Z defended. Syd had thought the slasher would be less scary than the zombie apocalypse. Z was mostly okay with it, if not a little bit squeamish. There was a lot of blood.

"Is that his _arm_?"

"No, it can't be, it's... oh my God."

"Ew. Ew. Ew!"

"I don't think≈ holy crap!" Suddenly Z found herself burying her face in Syd's shoulder to avoid looking at the screen, Syd's hand wrapped protectively around her ribs. She was about to ask if it was over, when she found Syd shaking. If Z was freaked out, poor Syd must've been petrified. She sat up, intent to turn off the movie, but found Syd was laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"You're such a _girl_, Z. Anyone shows blood, you freak out and start grabbing me." She grinned. "Not that I'm complaining or anything."

"Wait. I... you..." Z suddenly started piecing things together. "You _planned_ this?"

Syd shrugged with ruthless cheer. "C'mon, hot girl, scary movie... it's the oldest trick in the book."


End file.
